Before you decide to panic over the Psyb0t worm’s new ability to go after Linux powered modems and routers, you should read this quick checklist. 

  • Your device is a mipsel (MIPS running in little-endian mode, this is what the worm is compiled for) device.
  • Your device also has telnet, SSH or web-based interfaces available to the WAN, and
  • Your username and password combinations are weak, OR the daemons that your firmware uses are exploitable.
If you do not answer yes to any one of those then your Linux networking device is safe, you will not join the 1000 or so in the bot net.  If you do fall into that category, then The Inquirer can link you to a quick and easy fix that will also make you fairly immune to newer versions.

This is at bit of good news for an industry which was introduced to a type of permanent infection on Monday.

“A WORM is targeting embedded Linux devices which are used in DSL modems and routers. Mipsel based OpenWrt/ DD-WRT gear with SSH, Telnet, or Web-based interfaces available to the WAN have all been hit.

Psyb0t has been around for a while but lately it has changed its tactics and is hitting Linux hardware.

Netcomm’s MB5 ASDL modem has been hit but also modem brands in Italy, Brazil, Ecuador, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, Peru, Malaysia, Columbia, India, and Egypt were suspect as well.”

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